


Never Enough Time

by galacticwrites



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Depression, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pet Names, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-08 00:10:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17375816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticwrites/pseuds/galacticwrites
Summary: When you're fighting in an intergalactic war, there's rarely enough time. There will always be another battle when you're not ready, there will always be more lives that need saving when you're in the midst of freeing a different planet on the other side of the battle. But failure for Voltron doesn't normally mean that they won't be able to fight another day.This time it does.Or Lotor arrives a moment later then he needed to and it wasn't him that broke through the shield at Naxzela.





	Never Enough Time

**Author's Note:**

> Mature rating is for implied attempted suicide (more Keith being willing to sacrifice his life to save everyone else). Work will heavily feature memory loss. Later work may include references to depression and anxiety. Tags will be added as necessary.

It was laughable how quickly things had gone from pretty good to terrible. At least it would be laughable if their current situation didn’t mean that the existence of multiple solar systems was on the line.  
  
For a few peaceful moments, it had seemed like the battle was finally over—at least for the day. That together, Voltron, the rebels, and the Blade of Marmora had reclaimed a small section of the universe from the Galra.  
  
But something had just felt _off_ to Keith—Voltron’s lack of communication and the Galra battle cruiser just sitting there had left a funny feeling stirring in his gut. _Victory or death_ , that was the Galra way. It didn’t matter that they wouldn’t win the battle, they wouldn’t sit on the sidelines and watch Voltron win. So, Keith had commandeered a ship and flown off to Naxzela.  
  
When Voltron’s communication systems had come back online, relief had flooded Keith, only to be wiped away by icy dread. _Naxzela’s a bomb_. The words still rang in his ears. Everything in the blast range would be wiped out. There wasn’t enough time to evacuate all of the inhabited planets and transport them from outside the blast radius. There wasn’t enough time to evacuate _Voltron_.  
  
The only way was to destroy the cruiser.  
  
“Follow my lead. We’ve got to break through that shield,” Keith’s voice rang out across the communication line, calling Matt’s rebel forces to fire at the shield.  
  
“We’ll never penetrate those shields,” Matt replied, anxiety colouring his voice. Everyone had head that Naxzela was a bomb but Matt most likely understood better than anyone the destruction it would cause—he knew that his sister would never make it out in time.  
  
Even the combined forces of all the rebel fighters would never break the shield. Their weapons simply weren’t strong enough and they didn’t have enough time to wear it down slowly. If Voltron was here, its canon would make should work of it but they would never get here in time.  
  
_There wasn’t enough time_.  
  
“Maybe not with our weapons.” If there wasn’t enough time, then he would _buy_ them time.  
  
Angling his ship towards the battle cruiser, he sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that it would be enough. Pushing forwards on the accelerator, he allowed his eyes to fall shut.  
  
“Keith what are you doing?” Matt’s voice echoed in the cabin of his ship. “Wait! Keith, no--!” His voice was cut off abruptly as Keith reached up and blindly slapped off the communication line.  
  
He had never believed people when they said that time slowed down in your final moments. Time was time and it didn’t change for anyone. Besides, he faced death nearly every day fighting with Voltron and then the Blade of Marmora and it never changed. And yet, as he approached the barrier, trying not to focus on his imminent death, it did just that.  
  
Suddenly he could hear his every breath as it passed through his lips. Could hear the whirling f blood in his ears with every beat of his heart. Even as he neared the barrier, he could still hear the revels firing, futilely hoping to break through at the last moment, but each shot was long and drawn out, each explosion as they hit the barrier was deafening.  
  
He tried to tune out all of these sounds, each minute sound that he had never bothered to pay attention to before. But in his attempt to clear his mind it was only flooded with other stimuli—memories of the people he had grown close to since leaving Earth, his teammates. His _friends_.  
  
_Pidge_. Who he had known for longer then the two of them had ever let on to anyone else. Who he had recognized the second she walked through the door of his shack. Who he had made a silent oath to, to help find her brother and alter keep him safe. And who had been a constant companion in his long, sleepless nights.  
  
_Hunk_. Who had an infectious smile and an even more infectious laugh. Whose cooking had made him feel at home within the castle walls despite being further from Earth then ever before. Who had worried about his safety after every mission even though they hardly knew each other. And who had tried harder than anyone to make him see that his Galra heritage hadn’t changed who he was.  
  
_Lance_. Who had forgotten about their supposed rivalry no more than a week into space. Who had always shown an overwhelming amount of compassion for his teammates despite hurting more than anyone. Who he could always count on to cheer him up. And the only person he would have trusted as his right-hand man.  
  
_Shiro_. Who he had known as a brother back on Earth and a partner and leader in Voltron. Who had seen the potential in him when everyone else had already decided that he was a lost cause. Who had already given up everything for a mission once but hadn’t hesitated to lose it again when the universe had called for his aid. Who had suffered more than anyone he knew. And who would be losing another thing today.  
  
Even Allura and Coran flitted through his mind. The two of them had pulled the five of them away from their homes and into an intergalactic way that none of them had even known existed. And yet, facing the truth that he would never have his old life back, he couldn’t find it in himself to be angry.  
  
Whispering a final goodbye to his teammates, he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter to avoid the temptation to open them and take in the universe around him a final time, having no desire to watch the approaching pointed tip of the Galra battle cruiser and the purple shimmer of the shield that stood between him and it  
  
_Victory or death_ , that was the Galra way. He had always scoffed at the notion, always held steadfastly onto the idea that it was better to live and fight another day then to just throw your life away. And yet here he was, ready to die so that his team could be victorious. In the end, he was half Galra and he couldn’t erase that part of himself.  
  
In the end, ‘victory or death’ was _his_ way.  
  
Lance’s beaming smile floated to the front of his mind and he found himself smiling even as he felt the shockwaves of the front of his ship crumpling.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work that I'm ever publishing for others to see so please be gentle!  
> Hopefully the next chapter will be up shortly, this one was more of a prologue to set up the rest of the story.
> 
> If you're interested in other things that I'm working on, you can check those out at my Tumblr @galacticfics (and you might even get a sneak peak of what's to come).


End file.
